Knights Struggle Against the Tigers Early, Fall 85-69 in the AAC Tournament

With a slow start after the opening tip, UCF was never able to overcome the first half onslaught from Memphis.

Author:
Brian Smith
Publish date:
Mar 12, 2022 9:24 AM EST

With a slow start after the opening tip, UCF was never able to overcome the first half onslaught from Memphis.

FORT WORTH, Texas - It just was not UCF’s night. Well, that’s actually an understatement. The Knights were down a whopping 24-5 before climbing back into the contest before halftime, trailing 41-31 going into intermission. What led to the issue of being down 19 is the bigger point to ponder.

When looking at the raw numbers, UCF simply did not keep up with the Memphis big men on the backboards. The Tigers out rebounded UCF by an eye-opening 47 to 37. Yes, one rebound shy of completely doubling-up the UCF rebounding efforts, Memphis simply wanted it more. That is a sure-fire way to go down big in any college basketball tournament game, especially to a team like Memphis that is now sitting at a 20-9 overall record and has won five games in a row.

As for UCF, this game leaves some of the same questions that were asked in the preview article yesterday. One in particular leaves many scratching their heads. Darin Green, Jr. can be one of the nation’s most explosive scorers, and he can also be a player that cannot find the bottom of the net. Against Memphis, Green went an atrocious 1-11 from behind the arc. Give Green credit for continuing to put up shots and not backing down, but a 9% shooting percentage is never an acceptable total.

Hats off to Darius Perry for knocking down 8/15 from the field, tallying 23 total points. He was the reason UCF truly had any shot at all to make a comeback. Still, that’s one player that was red hot. Against a quality opponent like the Tigers, that’s just not enough good shooting to overcome the backboard disadvantage and the Green’s poor shooting.

A few more notes about last night’s game:

Dre Fuller did well off the bench, including 4/5 from downtown. 14 points in all, Fuller played 25 minutes and deserves the opportunity to play more.

After 13 blocked shots against USF the game before, only four blocks against Memphis. That’s not a bad total, mind you, but it’s a far cry from the flat-out dominance in the lane against USF.
UCF allowed Memphis to shoot 49.2% as a team. That’s a tip of the cap to Memphis, but also a situation where UCF’s defense did not close out on shooters well enough, as well as the offensive rebounding for the Tigers (17 offensive rebounds in total) leading to many easy buckets.
From the 19:10 mark of the first half when Perry hit the first shot for UCF to make it a 2-2 game, Memphis went on a 14-0 run that was finally halted by one free throw from Jamille Reynolds with 13:44 remaining in the first half. For whatever the reason, UCF’s offense just went stone cold and Memphis took advantage. Even with the phenomenal run the Knights made early in the second half to close the score to 42-39, this early game deficit came back to haunt UCF.

Looking forward, UCF is likely headed to the NIT. Inside The Knights will discuss the overall season for UCF after the conclusion of that tournament, plus talk about the big picture of the program in the next few weeks.

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